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3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator Personal Edition USB
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| Price: |
Average customer review:
Product Description
SpaceNavigator Personal Edition
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #35040 in Consumer Electronics
- Brand: 3Dconnexion
- Model: 3DX-700029
- Released on: 2007-09-06
- Platforms: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 2.00" h x 3.00" w x 3.00" l, 3.33 pounds
Features
- Powerful Navigation at entry-level price
- Move, fly and build in Second Life
- Fly through Google Earth and 120+ 3D programs
- Manipulate models in Google SketchUp
- Powerful navigation for 3D visualization programs
- Ideal for 3D designers, students, artists and enthusiasts
Editorial Reviews
Manufacturer's Description
Important: The SpaceNavigator Personal Edition is licenced for non-commercial & educational use only. For commercial use and to benefit from comprehensive telephone technical support, please choose the SpaceNavigator Standard Edition.
From the Manufacturer
3Dconnexion has made powerful 3D navigation accessible and affordable for designers, architects, artists, students and anyone else who wants to enjoy the 3D experience.
Ideal for Google Earth, Google SketchUp and Second Life the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator offers natural and intuitive navigation of 3D environments and models and works with more than 120 of today's most popular and powerful 3D applications.
How to use
Used in conjunction with a traditional mouse, simply push, pull, tilt or twist the SpaceNavigator controller cap to simultaneously pan, zoom and rotate your 3D model or environment.
With SpaceNavigator taking care of navigation, you can concentrate on being creative with your traditional mouse while benefiting from up to 50% less clicks and 30% extra productivity.
Tailored to your needs.
SpaceNavigator's buttons can be programmed with the command of your choice and the easy to use Control Panel allows you to set or change device/navigation settings to your individual preferences.
Express yourself in 3D with Google SketchUp.
SpaceNavigator and Google SketchUp are a match made in heaven. Imagine simultaneously zooming, panning and rotating your model with one hand while selecting, creating and editing with the other.
Explore, search, discover with Google Earth.
Fly through the grand canyon, soar over
“This device is my new favorite way to use Google Earth.” - Frank Taylor, Google Earth Blog
"...the hours have just been flying by while I rediscover Google Earth with a level of control that is completely addictive. I need to remind myself to eat." - Stefan Geens, editor Ogle Earth Blog
Move, fly and build in Second Life
The rich world of Second Life was built to be experienced and enjoyed in the most natural way possible. SpaceNavigator provides all the navigation and control you need to effortlessly move, fly and build.
Comprehensive application support
SpaceNavigator is compatible with over 120 top 3D applications, including: Second Life, Google SketchUp, Google Earth, Photoshop CS2/3, SolidWorks, Inventor, Pro/ENGINEER, AutoCAD 2008, 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, Poser and many more.
Customer Reviews
Very nice hardware, but...
I won't describe again what this thing is or does, as other reviews have covered that. Suffice to say it's a beautiful object and works very well. I use an earlier version at work for 3D CAD work, and can't live without it, and at this price range it's a bargain.
BUT: For some strange reason, the manufacturers don't seem to want to produce a generic driver for this product. That mean it won't work with almost anything you'd want to use it for, even big name programs like Adobe Illustrator which I'd actually bought this for (although it works with Photoshop). The potential uses for the spacenavigator are huge - games, office apps (great for excel), even things like using to control the volume on your music. You could pan it to move line-by-line through a document and then tilt it to go page by page. It would be amazing, a device as groundbreaking as the mouse was.
But you can't do any of these things. A look on 3dConnexions web forum gives the impression that they expect you to write your own drivers for your own applications, which is an incredibly strange business decision. As this thing is, it's wasted. It's a toy, a gimmick, which is an incredible shame as this should be so powerful.
So, what would be a glowing five-star review becomes a mere three. If you have a specific use for this, fantastic, otherwise it's a very attractive blue-glowing paperweight.
3ds heaven
bought this for 3ds MAX (9) and ONLY 3ds MAX (9) - after all it is specifically designed for 3 dimensions.
it does work on quite a few 2D applications, but I didn't even install the drivers for those so I can't comment - mouse is fine for 2D, in my opinion.
if you have any 3d applications, you will soon get used 2 how this works and once you do, you'll find it one of the best gadgets available for a pc.
bigger and better versions can cost up to £400, but this only cost £37 and I'll make that money back in my first month just because of the time it saves - no more using the mouse for pan / adjust / rotate / adjust / pan / adjust etc. etc. when trying to manipulate vertices etc. on a 3D object - now my mouse does all the adjustments, and the 3dconnexion space navigator does all the panning, zooming & rotating without ever having to lift a finger.
one word of warning - my 3ds Max has issues with VISTA so has to be run as administrator, if that is the same with you then this gadget has also to be set up to run as administrator, and I mean 'defaulted' to run as admin, otherwise settings get lost/blocked by vista.
apart from that issue, which is Vista's fault, I cannot rate this item highly enough - even my college is thinking of buying some now.
if you use 3d, BUY THIS NOW!!!
How did I ever live without it?
I was introduced to the world of 3Dconnexion 3D mice by my partner who is a professional designer using 3DS Max. He actually uses the high end device called the SpacePilot which has a lot more buttons and features than the SpaceNavigator. He would never consider doing his job without it.
I'm more of a hobbyist when it comes to design applications, mainly using SketchUp and Photoshop. It's for these applications that I bought my SpaceNavigator... and it's been a revelation! I'm working so much quicker when I'm creating designs and it's also fantistic for fly-throughs when I'm reviewing my design ideas. I was very surprised to see a negative review on this site but I've actually left a comment on that review with some suggestions that you can read if you click on it. And I hope it helps because now that I've had this device for a few days I know now that I could never works without it. I've also used it with Google Earth and it's amazing. It's just like flying. When you use Google Earth with just a traditional mouse, the navigation is very jerky and slow. When I use my SpaceNavigator the experience is so smooth, controlled and intuitive... not to mention fun.
If you decide to buy one of these devices you won't be disappointed.
